United States v. Ennis
| Decision Date | 24 August 1904 |
| Citation | 132 F. 133 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES v. ENNIS et al. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of New Jersey |
Theodore B. Booraem, for plaintiff.
Herbert Green, for defendants.
By the declaration filed in this case the plaintiff avers that the defendants, Joseph E. Ennis, Thomas Dennin, and Justus T Tryon are jointly indebted to it upon a certain sealed obligation executed by the defendants, and dated February 14 1902, whereby they have acknowledged themselves bound to the United States of America in the sum of $4,000, to be paid to the United States of America or its authorized agent as liquidated damages; that the obligation is subject to the condition that if Joseph E. Ennis, his heirs, executors, or administrators, should well and truly execute a certain contract, annexed to the obligation, which he had entered into with Capt. William M. Folger, U.S.N., Inspector of the Third Lighthouse District, for and in behalf of the United States, by which he covenanted and agreed to furnish and deliver fuel, according to all the conditions of the contract, then the obligation should be void, but otherwise should remain in full force and virtue; that by the contract annexed to the obligation Ennis covenanted and agreed to and with Capt. Folger to furnish and deliver, in good order and condition, all the fuel that might be called for by Capt Folger for the supply of the lighthouse vessels and stations in the Third Lighthouse District during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1903, the said fuel to be furnished in such quantities and at such times during said fiscal year as Capt Folger might require, and that Capt. Folger, for and in behalf of the United States of America, agreed to pay to Ennis, for all fuel so delivered, accepted, and receipted for, the following sums: for anthracite egg coal of best quality, $5.03 per ton of 2,240 pounds, delivered at the Lighthouse Depot, New London, Conn., and for anthracite stove coal of best quality, $5.34 per ton of 2,240 pounds delivered at the same depot. The breach averred is that on November 20, 1902, Capt. Folger demanded of Ennis the delivery of 200 tons of anthracite egg coal and 100 tons of anthracite stove coal at the above-mentioned depot on or before December 15, 1902, and that Ennis failed to comply with the demand. The summons in the case was served only on the defendants Dennin and Tryon, the other defendant, Ennis, not being found and not having appeared.
The first plea of the defendants who have appeared is the general issue. Their second is a special plea, in which they allege that at divers times after December 15, 1902, and within the fiscal year ending June 30, 1903, Capt. Folger demanded of Ennis the delivery, under the contract above mentioned, of certain quantities of coal, which Ennis furnished as demanded, amounting in value to the sum of $4,204.30; that the plaintiff had a lien upon the moneys so due from it to Ennis, by which it might have enforced the payment of whatever was due to the...
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United States v. Eastport Steamship Corporation
...a claim against Eastport the Comptroller General perhaps was guilty of a breach of duty toward the United States. Cf. United States v. Ennis, C.C. D.N.J.1904, 132 F. 133. Eastport suggests, however, that payment of the judgment was consistent only with an admission that the Government's cla......